Thalia

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For The Record...

Born Ariadne Sodi Miranda on August 26, 1972, in Mexico; married Tommy Mottola (a record company executive), December 2, 2000. Performed on four albums as member of kiddie pop group Din-Din; performed in Mexico City staging of musical Grease, 1984; actress in telanouelas (soap operas), including Maria Mercedes, Marimar, and Maria la del barrio, joined vocal group Timbiriche, performed on three albums, 1986-89; signed with Fonovisa and released debut solo album, Thalia, 1989; signed with EMI Latin, 1994; released En extasis, which included hit single “Piel Morena,” 1995; contributed songs to the animated film Anastasia, 1997; released greatest hits album, Con banda grandes exitos, 2001; had film debut in English-language independent film Mambo Cafe. Awards: Lo Nuestro Award, Best Female Regional Mexican Artist, 2002. Addresses: Record company—EMI Latin, 404 Washington Ave., Suite 700, Miami Beach, FL 33139. Website—Thalia Official Website: http://www.thalia.com.

Singer

As superstar of both Mexican telenovelas (soap op-eras) and Latin pop music, Thalia has won worldwide fame and adulation. Known for her sultry, romantic image, she had reached an almost goddess-like stature in some countries, such as the Philippines. She made news in the United States when she married Sony Music Entertainment chairman and CEO Tommy Mottola, who had previously been married to pop diva Mariah Carey.

Ariadne Sodi Miranda was born in Mexico in 1972, the youngest of five children. Her father died while she was a young child. At age nine, she joined Din-Din, a pop group made of children, and toured Mexico. Din-Din released four albums; their first, Alegrias musicales, was released in 1981. While performing in the band, Miranda continued to pursue her love of acting and dancing, taking the stage name of Thalia. She won a part as a chorus girl in Mexico City’s production of the musical Grease, and at age 13 she became the lead in the production. Firmly planted in the entertainment world, Thalia joined a popular vocal group called Timbiriche. She and the group released three albums.

Spending a year living in Los Angeles, California, Thalia felt ready to change her image. She decided to go solo and cut her debut album, Thalia, on Fonovisa in 1989. Producer and mentor Alfredo Diaz Ordaz produced all three of her Fonovisa albums, which include Mundo de cristal (1991) and Love (1992). While Thalia was experiencing great success in her career, she was devastated in 1994 when Diaz died from cancer. They had been engaged to marry.

All the while her musical career was taking off, Thalia continued to pursue acting. She appeared in numerous Mexican soap operas, including Luzy Sombra in 1989. Her breakthrough role came in Quinceanera, which ran in 1987. She won three career-defining roles in soap operas that would span the next four years. Playing the lead in 1992’s Maria Mercedes, 1994’s Marimar, and 1995’s Maria la del barrio, Thalia became a global celebrity. "[She] always portrayed a poor girl who found a way to become rich," described Teresa Aguilera in Billboard. Thalia won fans everywhere, and was viewed by one billion people worldwide. Fans related to her romantic characters and were glued to the television sets whenever she appeared. Thalia explained to Billboard’s Leila Cobo, "In all my soaps, my characters have always been very real, very pueblo [of the people], very raza [the common race]. They get the opportunity to expand, but they’re Cinderella characters. And I’ve always had very direct contact with my audience. They don’t see me as unattainable."

Whatever the reasons, Thalia’s success as a soap opera star was nothing short of phenomenal and translated to huge record sales for her albums. "Soaps give you a platform in places you can’t even imagine," she told Cobo, "For example, in Greece … in Spain, too. My

records sell in Turkey, the Philippines, countries where I would have never had the opportunity to be known and it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t had those roles and if my songs hadn’t played every single night on TV."

In 1994 Thalia signed with EMI Latin, releasing En extasis in 1995. Emilio Estefan produced the album’s hit single "Piel Morena." She took promotional tours to the United States, Brazil, and Southeast Asia, and toured Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and the Dominican Republic in support of the album, and watched her sales reach top-ten levels throughout Latin America. Her visit to the Philippines in 1996, where Man Mar was the country’s favorite soap opera, revealed the extent of Thalia’s global fandom. The same week that a peace agreement was being signed with Muslim guerrillas and the Philippines were celebrating their centennial anniversary of their revolution, her week-long visit earned non-stop press coverage. Television carried her arrival as thousands gathered to catch a glimpse of her. Politicians fawned over Thalia, making sure they had their photos taken with her. In the Filipino Daily Inquirer, a reporter noted: "They are trying to escape from the ugliness around them… you can see Thalia descending like an apparition from Mount Olympus, and you can understand what the Filipinos are trying to escape into. They are trying to escape into beauty." Many lawmakers were amazed that Filipinos were more interested in Thalia than the celebration of the Revolution.

Creating her own revolution of sorts, Thalia continued pursuing both her acting and musical careers. After the release of her second EMI Latin record, Amor a la mexicana in 1997, Thalia released NanditoAko, which includes songs sung in Tagalog, a Philippine idiom. The Mexico City Wax Museum placed a wax figure of Thalia in their museum. She also made forays into new businesses by creating two lines of lingerie and a Thalia doll, and appearing in her first Hollywood film, Mambo Cafe.

EMI Latin released Thalia’s Arrasando in 2000—a mix of rap, salsa, rap, and reggae set to a club beat. Her Con banda grandes exitos followed in 2001, a collection of her greatest pop hits backed by banda music, a brass-based traditional Mexican music. Exploring new venues, Thalia contributed to the soundtrack of the animated film Anastasia. At the same time her albums were climbing the charts, she made another popular soap opera called Rosalinda and watched the ratings soar. Billboard anointed her with their Star Award in 2001 in recognition of "artistic achievements [that] cross barriers beyond music."

Cutting back from acting and concentrating on her music, Thalia courted an English-speaking audience with 2002’s Thalia, which includes three English-language tracks. According to Billboard reviewer Cobo: the album "has far more aggressive rock undertones than its namesake’s previous material, edgier arrangements that often rely on crunchy guitars, and a generally relaxed feel." Thalia was attracting more attention in the United States for other reasons as well. She and Sony Music executive Mottola had married in December of 2000.

Promotional materials for Thalia accents the vocalist’s steamy soap opera image and while some in the press called for a recognition of Mexican female singers that don’t promote a sultry, Latin image, all indications pointed to massive worldwide sales. Thalia settled into a new home in Miami Beach, poised to work as hard as ever to promote her new album. Cobo felt her new album signaled a departure: she "has taken a quantum artistic leap that may mark the difference between her current musical success and mainstream stardom."

Selected discography
Thalia, Fonovisa, 1989.
Mundo de cristal, Fonovisa, 1991.
Love, Fonovisa, 1992.
En extasis, EMI Latin, 1995.
Amor a la mexicana, EMI Latin, 1997.
Arrasando, EMI Latin, 2000.
Con banda grandes exitos, EMI Latin, 2001.
Thalia, EMI Latin, 2002.

Sources
Periodicals
Billboard, November 29, 1997, pp. 4, 12; April 28, 2001, p.24; December 8, 2001, p. 3; April 13, 2002, p. 11.
New York Times, August 27, 1996, p. A4.

Online
"Cinderella Story," Time, http://www.time.com/musicgoesglobal/la/mthalia.html (March 27, 2002).
"Thalia," All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (April 2, 2002).
Thalia Official Website, http://www.thalia.com (April 2, 2002).

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Biography

Mexico, and in turn much of the Spanish-speaking world, knew very few media superstars as illustrious as singer/actress Thalía, whose beauty and celebrity were practically unmatched during her prime. A media darling for most of her life, la mexicana rose to increasing fame throughout the 1990s, starring in popular telenovelas and releasing solo albums that capitalized on her television renown. By the end of the decade, Thalía was a chart-topping recording artist on the brink of extending her reach internationally, to the United States in particular.

Born Ariadna Thalía Sodi Miranda in Mexico City to parents Ernesto Sodi Pallares and Yolanda Miranda Mange on August 26, 1971, the singer/actress was the youngest of five daughters. She lost her father when she was five years old, and the loss had a devastating effect on her. As a youth, Thalía was a good student throughout her school years and studied ballet as well as piano. Even at such an early age, she aspired to be an actress and singer. She began singing professionally at age ten as part of the children's group Din Din, and shortly thereafter, in 1983, she embarked on an acting career, beginning with a TV Christmas special. Her music career was enhanced in 1986 when she replaced group member Sasha Diez Barroso in the popular teen pop act Timbiriche (whose members also included Paulina Rubio). And her acting career was likewise enhanced in 1987 when she joined the cast of the telenovela Pobre Seniorita Limantour, her first of several such roles.

In 1990 Thalía made her solo recording debut with a self-titled album, and in 1992 she began starring in a series of "Maria" telenovelas -- Maria Mercedes, Maria Mar, and Maria la del Barrio -- that earned her the title of la Reina de las Telenovelas (the Queen of the Telenovelas). Her acting certainly didn't hurt her recording career, though she did struggle to take her music to the heights of her acting. All of this began to change in 1995 when she moved from Fonovisa to EMI Latin and released her label debut, En Extasis, which featured her first major international hit, "Piel Morena," as well as her hit theme song, "Maria la del Barrio." Latin pop impresario Emilio Estefan, Jr. produced her next album, Amor a la Mexicana (1997), and it too met international success and was a much stronger album, her first great one. Estefan also produced her follow-up, Arrasando (2000), and it was an even bigger success, spawning five hit singles, one of which ("Entre el Mar y una Estrella") topped Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks chart, her first time doing so. The album also featured the hit theme song from her concurrent telenovela, Rosalinda.

Thalía's next album, Thalia (2002), was largely written and produced by Estéfano, the hitmaker who had taken Paulina Rubio's career to megastar heights two years earlier with Paulina. Buoyed by a pair of chart-topping singles ("No Me Enseñaste" and "Tu y Yo"), this album was Thalía's first to hit number one on the Top Latin Albums chart, reaching number 22 on the overall Billboard 200 chart, which itself was a supreme feat for a Spanish-language artist. In 2003 and 2004 a remix and greatest-hits album followed, respectively, and 2005 brought with it a new studio album, El Sexto Sentido, which, again written and produced primarily by Estéfano, met a relatively lukewarm reception. It didn't top the album chart, and its lead single, "Amar Sin Ser Amada," likewise failed to hit number one (in the stateside market, at least, as Thalía's popularity in her native Mexico remained more or less unmatched).

Beginning in the early 2000s, it should be noted, Thalía did try to cross over into the greater stateside market with English-language versions of her music. These concessions, however, fell flat time after time, which, along with the disappointing reception of El Sexto Sentido, suggested that Thalía's enormous success was receding in the wake of her 2000-2002 peak. Her celebrity remained intact, though, especially because she'd married music industry titan Tommy Mottola (former head of Sony as well as Mariah Carey's ex), the couple having celebrated the occasion with a three-million-dollar wedding in 2000. After giving birth to her first child in 2007, Thalía released Lunada the following year. ~ Jason Birchmeier, Rovi